January 26
Search is a novel in the form of a memoir: the memoirist, Dana Potowski, tells of her membership on a search committee for a new minister at the Arroyo Unitarian Universalist Church (modeled on the one in Pasadena). The New York Times reviewer said that “this novel has plot, character, structure and a delicious, deeply human pettiness that I think most honest readers will relate to. And speaking of delicious, Huneven’s descriptions of food are the best I’ve ever read.” The Washington Post reviewer said, “The stakes may be salvation itself, but, as is so often the case, the real matter of church work is taken up with who’s wearing what, whether members should clap for the choir and other earthbound distractions. . . Even Dana wonders, Who’d want to read a book about a church committee,’ but the story that develops from this wafer-thin premise is miraculously engaging.